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MI Puppy Mill Survivors One Step Closer to Homes

Last week the ASPCA helped remove more than 150 dogs from a large-scale, substandard breeding facility in Michigan. Just one week later, we’re happy to report we’ve been able to place the dogs with our amazing shelter partners. Midwest: That means some of these dogs could be in a shelter near you!

Some of the more fearful and undersocialized dogs have been transferred to the ASPCA Behavioral Rehabilitation Center at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in Madison, New Jersey, for further treatment.

Before the transports, ASPCA responders cared for and provided the dogs with veterinary services at the Roscommon County Animal Shelter. Each dog was carefully evaluated by the ASPCA Anti-Cruelty Behavior team before being transferred to the rescue groups.

“Thanks to our accommodating partner shelters, we were able to find placement for all of these dogs in just one week,” says Kathryn Destreza, Director of Investigations for the ASPCA Field Investigations and Response Team. “These dogs have been living in miserable conditions their entire lives. We are excited to see them move on to shelters so quickly, and soon, to loving homes.”

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Many blessings to all who work to make animals' lives better. We are their only voice. ♥ So I am using my voice to post this repeatedly, until it somehow falls into the hands of someone who has the authority and the courage to help us put an end to puppy and kittens mills, once and for all.... PUPPY MILLS ARE GLUTTING THE SYSTEM
We will euthanize 10,000 pets today at our animal shelters and city Animal Care & Control facilities. We will euthanize 10,000 pets tomorrow too, and most every day. Unless our lawmakers enact regulations on the production of puppy and kitten mills, this pet overpopulation crisis is doomed to increase. This is costing our government millions of dollars, which are OUR TAX DOLLARS! And they are being spent to KILL PETS that the PUPPY MILLS ARE PRODUCING. What is wrong with this picture? The USDA has NEGLECTED to regulate this mill production, to the point that our country is about to explode with dead and suffering animals. Surely, our government must know that this has to stop! I will never understand how the USDA has any business having pets under the same regulations, (or the lack thereof), as poultry, slaughter hogs and beef cattle producers...WE DO NOT EAT DOGS AND CATS IN THIS COUNTRY, they are pets! Our government must stop allowing them to be mass produced like they were food animals! And the conditions that we accept as "USDA approved" for these animals to live in, consist of a lifetime of horrific neglect and deprivation! These pets don't even go to slaughter when they are old enough and fattened up. They live their entire lives in a cage, often left out in all kinds of weather, with little or no veterinary care. The female's' life is spent carrying, nursing, or grieving her lost babies, until she is bred yet again. Then about twice a year, the male shares her cage until mating is complete. Then he is returned to languish in his own flthy cage until it is time to breed again. This only ends for them when they die, or become "no longer good for breeding" and there is no regulation on how they are "disposed of" then. But the numbers of dead and decaying animal carcasses that are strewn throughout or piled up on the property of far too many of these mills, speak volumes. Unfortunately, the financial influence of the Agriculture business has managed to supercede the horrific conditions of the animals, the pet overpopulation crisis, even the glutting of our own systems!
WE THE PEOPLE, MUST RISE UP AND DEMAND THAT OUR GOVERNMENT ENACT LAWS TO END THIS INSANITY! I guarantee you, if the beef producers were churning out millions of pounds of beef in a year, and we only ate half of it, and the other half had to be "disposed of" at great expense to the government, you can bet the USDA would be slapping some major restrictions on beef production. So why don't they see that we are euthanizing over four million pets a year, and the puppy and kitten mills are "producing" a majority of them? IS OUR GOVERNMENT REALLY SO "OWNED" BY THE PUPPY MILL/Ag INDUSTRY, THAT THEY BETRAY THEIR CONSTITUENTS, WASTE OUR TAX DOLLARS AND GLUT THEIR OWN SYSTEM? We must find a way to rid our world of this horrific business of abuse and neglect! OUR GOVERNMENT MUST TAKE ACTION TODAY!
Pamela M Beck

I have three rescue dogs. One of them was born and abused, then dumped onto a puppy mill. When the puppy mill got closed down, she was one of five dogs that landed at my local animal shelter. This dog chose me. Although she is still afraid of many things, she is my gentle giant and watches out over my birds (I also have a parrot rescue).
Another dog here, my chihuahua, was in a different puppy mill. He had been kept in a tiny cat crate, and was not socialized or handled. When the owner of that puppy mill dies, the wife sent this dog to the person that I got him from. Not only did this person keep him in this crate, but she also locked the crate in the bathroom.
When she offered me this dog, and went into the bathroom and brought the crate out, I knew that I had to save this poor little dog.
When I first brought him home, he had atrophy so bad that he was unable to walk. With a lot of physical therapy and messages, he now runs like a normal dog. He has started to develop problems from the atrophy now, and I have to keep him medicated. He also tested positive for giardia when he first came here, and has been treated for that.
He has been with me for about three years now, and is one of the best dogs that I have ever had. It took me about ten minutes to get a collar and leash on him, and he now sits for me to put his collar on him or take it off. He also fully accepts a harness to walk with and walks nicely on the leash. It took about a day and a half to house train him. He is now neutered and microchipped too and is up to date on all of his shots.
Both of these dogs really had it bad before they got to my house, but they have both turned out to be great dogs. They love me and there is no fear with me. They trust me, and they stay by my side.
My third dog, a Shih-Tzu also came from my local animal shelter. She had been picked up as a stray, so we don't know very much about her. But I can tell that she has never been abused a day in her life. She is a runner, and I am thinking that she just simply got out once too often and her owners just didn't chase after her to catch her.
All three of my dogs know what love is now, and they all have so much love for me that it can sometimes get overwhelming. Especially my chihuahua. He very rarely leaves my side. And now when I approach him, he flops over onto his back for me to rub his belly...total and complete submission. He knows that he is loved here, and he knows that he can trust me, and he does trust me fully.
One thing about shelter animals, they know that life can be bad, and when they get a good life, they do appreciate it. And it shows.
I should mention that my first dog, the one who was abused as a puppy, then dumped onto the puppy mill is a mixed breed black lab/husky/rottweiler. She really could have turned out to be very mean, but she is not mean at all. I let her be around my birds when they are out of their cages, and she is the only one of the three dogs that I trust with my birds. She actually keeps them out of trouble and is very motherly to any other animal.
Shelter animals know when they've got it made, and they do appreciate it when they've gotten into good homes.